[bus tires hissing, door closing]
[applause]
Martin: There comes a time when time itself
is ready for a change.
all: Yes.
Martin: And that time has come in Montgomery.
["Sweet Home Alabama"]
[upbeat rock music]
♪ ♪
all: ♪ Ooh, hoo, hoo ♪
man: ♪ Big wheels keep on turnin' ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Carry me home to see my kin ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Singin' songs about the Southland ♪
♪ ♪
♪ I miss ole 'Bamy once again ♪
♪ And I think it's a sin, yes ♪
children: ♪ Keep the faith ♪
man: ♪ We got to keep the faith ♪
♪ Keep the faith ♪
♪ We're gonna keep the faith ♪
♪ Keep the faith ♪
♪ Keep the faith, kee-kee-kee-keep ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ In Birmingham, they love the governor ♪
all: ♪ Whoo, hoo, hoo ♪
man: ♪ Now we all did what we could do ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Now Watergate does not bother me ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Does your conscience bother you? ♪
♪ Now, tell the truth ♪
♪ ♪
all: ♪ Sweet home Alabama ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Where the skies are always blue ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Sweet home Alabama ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Sweet home ♪
- I got the right to sit here!
Leave me alone! Leave me alone!
all: ♪ Alabama ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[yelling]
man: Gonna need that seat.
Need that seat.
Go on, move back to the colored section.
Move.
- No.
[all talking at once]
I am sitting in no man's land.
It's not white. It's not colored.
Anybody can sit here.
- By my discretion, and I am telling you to move.
I got to enforce the segregation laws.
[echoing] It's my duty.
A white person wants this seat.
woman: [echoing] She's the one.
[tense music]
- You go on.
You do what you got to do.
[dramatic percussive music]
♪ ♪
people: [echoing] She's the one.
She's the one.
[Nat King Cole's "Walkin' My Baby Back Home"]
[relaxed jazz music]
♪ ♪
- Come on, baby.
Nat King Cole: ♪ Gee, it's great ♪
♪ After bein' out late ♪
♪ Walkin' my baby back home ♪
♪ Arm in arm over meadow and farm ♪
♪ Walkin' my baby back home ♪
♪ We go 'long harmonizing a song ♪
♪ Or I'm recitin' a poem ♪
♪ Owls go by, and they give me the eye ♪
♪ Walkin' my baby back home ♪
♪ We stop for a while ♪
♪ She gives me a smile ♪
♪ And snuggles her head on my chest ♪
[baby crying]
♪ We start in to pet ♪
♪ And that's when I get ♪
♪ Her talcum all over my vest ♪
♪ After I kinda straighten my tie ♪
♪ She has to borrow my comb ♪
- Mr. Parks, we have a real chance here
to challenge the bus segregation law.
- Your wife is smart. She's educated.
- You and Mrs. Parks are so well-respected in the community.
woman: Why, she's been the secretary
of the Montgomery NAACP for the past ten years.
- She'd be most impressive to a white jury.
- We've been down this road before,
and Rosa is the perfect plaintiff.
- Raymond, you have struggled with us all these years.
Now here's a chance for some good
to finally come of it all.
- Ain't no good gonna come out of this situation.
Now, you mark my words.
- Please excuse us, just for a moment.
Please excuse us.
Raymond, I'm asking you to support me.
- You're asking,
or is your mind made up?
- Both things.
- If they ever find out we using state property...
- I know. - To run off these leaflets...
- We will both be fired.
This is our best opportunity to start a boycott,
and we're gonna do it.
- You discussed this with Mr. Nixon?
- Well, not in as many words.
- Then we don't even know for sure
if there is gonna be a bus boycott on Monday.
- Oh, now, there will be a boycott.
You can count on that.
- Coretta, honey, give me that baby so you can eat.
- Are you sure, Juanita?
- See, the problem is, brother,
you've been working a little too hard.
- Come here, you're so precious. Abernathy: It's a sermon.
It's not some doctoral dissertation.
[chuckles]
Let me demonstrate this for you.
What you do, you get up in front of the pulpit,
you get a nice look around, see all the people,
fill your lungs with a whole mess of air,
turn yourself heavenward and-- and let that Spirit fill you,
and then... [hums]
[laughter] - Wow, wow.
- And whatever come flyin' out, that's what you say!
- No, no, no, not at my church,
not at Dexter Baptist.
Folks over there don't go in for a whole lot
of hootin' and hollerin'.
- Mm-mm, folks at Dexter Baptist are kind of fancy.
Now, at Ralph's church--
- They're downright noisy
and rude sometimes.
You can't get through half of your sermon
without them causing a ruckus.
- That fellow who shines shoes over at the barbershop
is a member of your church, I think, Ralph.
He said, uh, "Reverend King, you just should've heard
"Reverend Abernathy last Sunday.
"He just preached his you-know-what off.
He--he was just--oh, just amazing out there."
I said, "Well, what did Reverend Abernathy say?"
And he said, "I don't recall what he said,
but, brother, we laughed."
[laughter]
Nixon: What about the ministers?
- Oh, Brother Ed, you know our ministers.
They're well-fed, comfortable men
with good shoes.
Ain't one of them ever even been on a bus.
Boycott, sir.
- We got two days to tell every Negro
in Montgomery to stay off of the buses.
One of them's a Sunday.
I don't see how we can do that without the ministers.
- Well-- hey, hey, young man.
Now, take this home here.
Nobody rides the buses Monday.
Got that? - Bus boycott on Monday.
We can't succeed unless we have their support.
[phone ringing]
- Hello, E.D.
Well, that's very interesting.
Boycotts work, Coretta.
It worked in Baton Rouge,
and Rosa Parks' trial is on Monday.
People want to call attention to it.
- Now, why are they having the meeting at your church?
- E.D. asked.
He thought it'd be neutral ground.
- Neutral ground?
- And we have a nicer meeting room.
- Martin, you're a new pastor
and a new father.
And we agreed that you wouldn't
take on too many responsibilities.
- But as a pastor, this is part of what I do.
It's just a meeting.
- Uh-huh.
- Where were we? Where were we?
We were talking about--
- I thought we came here to talk about boycotts.
[all talking at once]
- We only have two days to get everyone--
- So what I think we ought to--
I'd like to make a motion, all right?
[gavel pounds] - Ah.
The motion is denied.
- I didn't make the motion yet. - Well, you were fixin' to.
man: See, that's what happen. - All right.
- Welcome to Montgomery, brother.
- I'd like to make a motion that we elect
ourselves a board.
Get our-- - Denied.
- But, now, Reverend, I mean,
point of order here.
Banyon: Denied. - Oh, come on, now.
- Sister Robinson, I know how to run a boycott.
- He sure does.
He's about to start one right now.
Folks gonna boycott the boycott.
man: I have a question.
How are folks supposed to get to work?
man: Oh, good Lord, this is no time for questions, man.
This is a time for action.
man: Well, that's-- that's a legitimate question.
That's a legitimate question.
- I just want to say, we gonna need a leader eventually,
and since I have the largest congregation here...
- We're not ready for nothing like that.
[all talking at once]
man: That's why I say I nominate my church...
- I'd like to leave too, brother,
but it's my church.
- Brothers and sisters, brother--can--can we simplify--
brothers and sisters, please,
can I get your attention for a minute?
[people shushing, man speaks indistinctly]
Now, look, can we just simply agree
for a one-day boycott of the buses?
Just one day just to see what happens, okay?
[dog barking]
- Martin.
Martin, here it comes.
- It's empty.
man: ♪ Comin' for to carry me home ♪
- It's empty, not a soul.
- Good morning, Reverend King, Mrs. King!
- Good morning.
- A very good morning.
- Good day for walkin'.
Martin: Yes, yes.
Sweetheart,
you might want to go on inside and get dressed.
man: ♪ Going home, going home ♪
♪ Comin' for to carry me home ♪
man: ♪ Comin' for to carry me ♪
♪ ♪
[man scatting]
[percussive music]
♪ ♪
- They gave me this
and said Negroes are supposed to stay off the bus.
[bus engine revving]
♪ ♪
- "If you work,
"take a cab or walk,
"but please, children and grown-ups,
don't get on a bus at all on Monday."
Dizzy Gillespie: ♪ Swing low, sweet Cadillac ♪
♪ Comin' for to carry me home ♪
♪ Swing low, sweet Cadillac ♪
♪ Comin' for to carry me home ♪
♪ I looked over Jordan, and what did I see? ♪
♪ Comin' for to carry me home ♪
♪ Oh, an El Dorado comin' after me ♪
♪ Comin' for to carry me home ♪
[upbeat jazz music]
♪ ♪
- What? - We got a ambush.
- Quiet. We got an ambush going.
[all yelling]
- Based on the evidence presented here this morning,
I find you, Rosa Parks, guilty of violating
the state segregation statute,
and I hereby fine you $10,
plus $4 court cost.
Gray: Your Honor, Mrs. Parks will refuse to pay the fine
and hereby notices her appeal.
judge: Very well.
I'm setting her appeal bond at $100.
Pay the clerk.
[gavel pounds]
- Folks just gonna have to get smart and join the Klan.
[overlapping conversations]
man: Order!
[gavel pounds] Order.
Order!
Now, there's a motion on the floor
to suspend the boycott.
[all talking at once]
- Now, now, it's too soon to quit, now.
It's too soon to quit.
Huh, now, we just getting started.
- That's right. - That's right.
- Now, I tell you what we need to do.
We need to have a little bit more faith in our people
and ourselves.
- That's right.
Banyon: Order!
Order!
[all talking at once, people clapping]
- We-- [gavel pounds]
Now, now, we talkin' about
whether or not to end the boycott.
Now, that's putting the cart before the horse.
What we need to be talkin' about is electing us a leader
to represent us; then we can go on...
- He's had his eyes on that seat for a while.
- You think?
- Somebody to negotiate with the city
and present our demands.
- I like him, though. - Mm.
- Old union man.
- Christ, Lewis, I don't care.
I got something to say!
- You don't have the floor. - Now...
- Rufus Lewis, he's a--
what you might say a man of the classes.
- Now, you ministers have been living off
these washwomen for the last 100 years
and ain't done nothing for 'em.
- These are men of the masses.
Nixon: Let's tell the truth.
Let's tell the truth. Let's tell the truth!
It's our women who've been carrying the torch.
It's our women who've been getting arrested
while y'all hide behind their skirts
like a bunch of damn cowards!
Martin: Brother Nixon, Brother Nixon, Brother Nixon.
Brother Nixon, uh, I'm not a coward, and I don't want
anybody calling me a coward, but I agree with you.
Uh, the time has come to stop hiding.
Now, uh, Mrs. Parks didn't hide this morning
before that judge, and we should act openly.
Now, as for the question of whether or not
to suspend the boycott, well, it seems to me
that ought to be left up to the folks
who attend that meeting tonight.
After all, they're the ones who gonna be doing that walking.
[all talking at once]
- While I respect Mr. Nixon's years
of service to the struggle, I feel
we need a minister to unite our entire community.
I think he ought to be, uh, a young man,
a strong man.
'Cause we know this job
is gonna take a lot of energy.
man: Amen, that's right.
- Therefore, I nominate,
as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association,
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
[people murmuring unintelligibly]
May I have a second on my nomination?
[people murmuring unintelligibly]
- Yeah, I second that nomination.
Lewis: Why, thank you, Reverend Abernathy.
[light piano music]
Abernathy: You ain't see that one comin', did you?
Martin: No, Ralph, not at all.
- You the perfect choice.
You been in Montgomery, what, a year?
That ain't nearly long enough to make any real enemies.
- So you don't think they think I'm the best man for the job?
- No, of course they do.
'Cause you fail,
ain't they ass in the ringer, is it?
It's yours.
Who are you, anyway?
Just some young hotshot preacher from Atlanta
with a big old divinity degree
from some fancy Northern university.
You're just an outsider, brother,
with a powerful daddy.
They'll send you home and be back to business as usual.
- You think so, huh? - Uh-huh.
- Well, thank you, Ralph.
- You're very welcome.
You worried about leading this thing?
- No.
I'm worried about telling this woman.
- And what did you say?
- I said yes.
- You said yes?
- I said yes.
I didn't ask for it.
Uh, I just made
a few remarks
to clarify a situation,
and before I knew it...
- You were trying to bite off a little piece,
and you wound up with the whole pie.
- That's more or less what happened.
- Let's have dinner.
Martin: No.
No time.
I have to give this speech in an hour,
and you know it usually takes me two days for my sermons.
Mm, now I've only got-- good Lord.
- You'll think of something.
You always do.
[clock ticking]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[clock ticking]
♪ ♪
- Now, brothers and sisters, today I want you
to put on the whole armor of God.
The whole armor of God!
all: Yes!
[train whistle blowing]
- Against the wrong done against you.
all: Yes! Abernathy: This is Dr. King.
He's president of the
Montgomery Improvement Association.
This is Dr. King, yeah.
[unintelligible chatter]
man: Let him through here. Let him through.
Let him through here.
- Dr. King, this is the day we have waited for.
It's now all up to you.
- That hold us in high places.
all: Yes! man: That's right.
- And now I introduce to you the president
of the newly founded Montgomery Improvement Association,
Reverend King.
[applause]
- Uh, good evening.
all: Good evening.
- First, I would like to thank, uh, Brother Fields
for sharing his pulpit this evening,
and I'd like to thank you all for coming out.
You didn't have to do that.
But, uh, I know you know that
we are here this evening for serious business.
[people murmur agreement]
We are here in a general sense
because, first and foremost,
we're American citizens.
And we are determined to apply our citizenship
to the fullness of its meaning.
all: Right.
- But we're here in a specific sense
because of the bus situation in Montgomery.
all: Right. Yes.
- Now, just the other day, one of the finest citizens
in Montgomery--
not one of the finest Negro citizens,
but one of the finest citizens in Montgomery--
was taken from a bus and carried to jail
and arrested
because she refused to get up and give her seat
to a white person.
all: Right. Yes.
- And, you know, my friends, there comes a time
when people get tired of being trampled
by the iron feet of oppression.
all: Yes. [applause]
- There comes a time, my friends,
when people get tired of being thrown
across the abyss of humiliation,
where they experience the bleakness
of nagging despair.
There comes a time when people get tired
of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight
of life's July and left standing
amidst the piercing chill of an alpine November.
We're here--we're here because we're tired now.
all: Yes.
- And we're not wrong in what we're doing.
[people murmuring unintelligibly]
If we are wrong, the Supreme Court
of this nation is wrong.
[cheers and applause]
If we are wrong, the Constitution
of the United States is wrong.
If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong.
If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth
was merely a utopian dreamer and never came down to Earth.
[unintelligible chatter, applause]
If we are wrong, justice is a lie.
And we are determined to work together here
in Montgomery, to work and to fight
until justice rolls down like water
and righteousness like a mighty stream!
[cheers and applause]
- Ain't nothing wrong with wanting what's right.
People around here been wanting what's right all along.
- I have here a resolution
drafted by attorney Fred Gray
for your consideration.
And it reads,
"Be it resolved that the members
"of the Montgomery Improvement Association
"will continue the boycott
"indefinitely
until such time as a fair and just agreement is reached."
Now, all those in favor, please signify by standing up.
God be praised.
- Our Negroes did not stay off the buses by choice.
We have proof that Negro goon squads are intimidating
coloreds that would otherwise go right on ridin'.
I intend to make sure that law and order are maintained,
and coloreds that want to go on riding our buses
will not be constrained by outside agitators
or unlawful elements.
man: ♪ Said hey, little lady, maybe, baby, maybe, baby ♪
♪ You can come out tonight ♪ woman: ♪ Ba-bow ♪
man: ♪ I said hey, little lady, maybe, baby, maybe, baby ♪
♪ It could be so right ♪ woman: ♪ Ba-ba, boo-dah-bow ♪
- Come on now, come on. Martin: Denied!
[laughter]
- We--we--we got people out here who've been--
who've been walking for three days,
and we can't even get ourselves together
to make up a list of demands.
- Look, now, we should ask for the deal
they got down in Mobile.
There's a precedent for it.
- First come, first serve seating.
- The city council would have to give us that at least.
Write this down now.
Negroes from back to front,
white folks from front to back.
- Plus courtesy and respect for the Negro passengers
from the drivers.
Nixon: When hell freeze over.
Pardon me, reverends. - Can we agree?
- Now, we need to add that we want Negro bus drivers
to service Negro routes.
- Robinson, they're never gonna agree to that.
- Well, we can ask. There's no harm in asking.
- If we can't agree amongst ourselves,
we gonna waste this opportunity.
- They have Negro bus drivers in other cities.
- Miss Robinson, you know this is Montgomery,
and they are never gonna grant us that demand.
- Maybe that's why we should ask for it then.
- So they can reject it.
- Reverend King.
- Look, now, we've emptied their buses
for three days.
Not a single Negro has broken the boycott.
So they know they have to accept some changes,
but now, at the same time... [phone rings]
They have to save face.
So we offer them an unreasonable provision
so they can reject it.
- It's not unreasonable.
- It is to them, understand?
- It's just, we have to be willing to give up something.
- Give up something?
We hardly ask them for anything in the first place.
- It's a foothold until we can appeal Mrs. Parks' conviction.
- Martin.
Martin: Excuse me.
- Could you please not do that?
- Oh, Fred, come on. - Please.
Nixon: Oh, Fred...
- Don't ever call this house again.
[melancholy music]
♪ ♪
- Who was that?
- Nobody.
- Well, what did he say?
- Nothing I care to repeat.
They're just words, Coretta.
I've heard them before, and so have you.
- Martin, this isn't Atlanta.
This is Montgomery.
And you do not take those words lightly around here.
♪ ♪
- This will all be over soon.
The mayor convened a special meeting tomorrow
with the city council.
He'll compromise.
They have to.
man: Let me respond to your demand.
Part one, first come, first serve seating.
Now, we at the Montgomery city line are subject
to the law of the state of Alabama,
which, as we all know, requires segregation of the races.
Gray: Look. Uh, if I may?
The Alabama segregation statute states,
"City authorities may require segregation,"
not "must."
- Point two, courtesy and respect from the drivers.
Now, as far as we know, our drivers
are hard-working, courteous.
- Drivers are abusive.
They physically throw Negro women off of the buses
for sitting in an empty white section.
- That is gossip.
- I've seen it with my own eyes.
The buses stop at every corner in the white neighborhoods
and every other corner in the colored neighborhoods.
- Well, I won't say there isn't room for improvement.
Point three, hiring Negro drivers.
We won't tell the bus company who to hire,
and we certainly won't stand
for first come, first serve system.
- They've done it in Mobile.
man: Even if we wanted to, we can't.
Uh, that would require the abolition of segregation.
- Which is a law.
Is that what you're asking for?
- And other cities throughout the South?
- You're not answering our question, Mr. King.
Are you and your people calling for the abolition
of the segregation laws?
- No, what we're arguing for is a more humane system.
[phones ringing] - I've got something to say.
Uh, most of y'all know most of my life
I've been fighting to kill Jim Crow,
whether it's through the union or the NAACP,
and I'ma tell you one thing:
the NAACP will never support what we doing down here.
- I do not agree.
- Reverend King, the NAACP will never support an organization
that's only asking for a more humane system, never!
- Now, obviously, I have a great deal of respect
for the NAACP, but this is
the Montgomery Improvement Association,
and the Montgomery Improvement Association
has done more in four days for Negroes in this city
than the NAACP has done in ten years.
Now, I don't mean to be harsh in this, E.D.,
but, uh, we need to move beyond this now.
This is a-- this is a...
We share the same goals.
We have the same aspirations.
We just have different ways of going about it.
That's all.
- The chicken's almost ready.
- There's a minimum fare ordinance.
Taxis must charge a minimum of 45¢.
- That's bullshit!
How am I supposed to see?
Peoples can't pay 45¢ for no taxi.
- People can't pay 45¢ for a taxi.
The drivers were charging a dime,
same as the buses.
- Which is why they want to raise the minimum fare.
- But if the drivers charge less than 45¢,
they liable to lose their license and they livelihood.
- I hope this don't make Miss King jealous, Reverend.
[both giggle]
- People aren't gonna give up their cars.
- Yes, they will.
- They're too important to 'em.
- It worked in Baton Rouge.
The taxis there weren't allowed to lower their fares either.
Carpools kept the boycott alive.
- That's all well and good,
but ain't too many car owners in my flock.
- Well, I tell you what, Ralph.
You keep 'em walking, I'll get us some cars.
- Now, I'm hearing stories, inspiring stories.
We have Mother Pollard here,
70-year-old woman,
walking to and fro to work
and back home 12 miles every day
with a cane, unbent.
[cheers and applause]
Now, I feel an unstoppable conviction right now.
And I know you feel it too.
So we gon' keep on walking. all: Yes!
- We gon' keep on walking.
We'll walk to work every morning,
and we'll walk back home every night.
We'll wear a groove in the footpath of our cities.
Wear a groove in the pavement
until they see the depths of our conviction.
We are not walking. We are marching.
Martin: "And he said unto them, 'Which of you shall
"'have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight
"'and say unto him, "Friend, lend me three loaves,
"'"for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me,
and I have nothing to set before him."'"
[people murmuring unintelligibly]
Many in this congregation are very fortunate
in their material possessions.
Material things can be very nice.
Many of us have fancy cars, Cadillac cars,
and that's all right.
But now God is calling on us to use these things
to a greater purpose than simply to drive along the highway
on a Sunday afternoon or cruise through the city
at ten miles an hour to impress the neighbors.
man: Mm, mm-hmm. all: Right.
- We on the committee have decided on a system
to ease our burden.
Morning, Mr. Sands.
His car broke down.
[laughter]
We're asking you, if you have a car, to share it.
We're not asking for any outside help in this.
We gonna do this ourselves.
And we are going to pool our monies from all the churches
to share the costs of maintaining the automobile
and the cost of gasoline and such.
And here's the-- here's the good news now.
We gonna take up a second collection today.
man: Amen.
[applause]
- And I'll tell you something else.
If a couple of farmhands get mud
on his precious upholstery, old Dr. Johnson's
gonna have a heart attack on the spot.
- Now, you be careful, there.
- You really think that people will just give up their cars?
- Well, I've been told
I have certain powers of persuasion.
[gentle piano music]
- Who told you that?
- My beautiful wife.
♪ ♪
[slow dramatic music]
♪ ♪
It didn't last in Baton Rouge.
- What?
- Boycott.
Carpool ended in two weeks.
♪ ♪
[dramatic electric guitar flourish]
Lewis: We're guessing the bus company losing about
30,000 Negro fares every day.
We subtract some for the folks who walk.
Some just stay home.
It's about 20,000 people,
20,000 rides a day, that's what we need.
Now, with the number of cars we have volunteered,
that works out to be about 130 rides a day,
every single car.
♪ ♪
- Every car?
- [chuckles]
- Every car.
♪ ♪
All right.
All you riding out near Madison Street,
you gonna ride with Dr. Johnson here.
♪ ♪
Come on, get in.
Everybody go in here nicely, please.
- Now, now, you all be careful, please.
- Let's go. Everybody, everybody get in.
- Please.
- Dr. Johnson, you still co-ride, sir?
We sure appreciate what you're doing for the cause, sir.
Franklin: ♪ Get ready ♪
♪ For the revolution ♪
♪ Come on, come on, come on ♪
♪ Ow ♪ women: ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
Franklin: ♪ Do you want a revolution? ♪
chorus: ♪ Whoo, whoo ♪
Franklin: ♪ Say, do you want a revolution? ♪
chorus: ♪ Whoo, whoo ♪ Franklin: ♪ Come on ♪
women: ♪ Whoa-ho-ho-ho ♪
♪ Whoa-ho-ho-ho ♪
Franklin: ♪ Do you want a revolution? ♪
chorus: ♪ Whoo, whoo ♪ Franklin: ♪ Come on ♪
♪ Do you want a revolution? ♪ chorus: ♪ Whoo, whoo ♪
women: ♪ There's gonna be a brighter day ♪
♪ All your troubles will pass away ♪
all: ♪ A revolution's coming, yes, it's coming ♪
♪ Coming, revolution's coming, yes, it's coming ♪
♪ Revolution's coming ♪
women: ♪ Whoa-ho-ho-ho ♪
♪ Whoa-ho-ho-ho ♪ Franklin: ♪ Listen, listen ♪
♪ Do you want a revolution? ♪ chorus: ♪ Whoo, whoo ♪
Franklin: ♪ I say, do you want a revolution? ♪
chorus: ♪ Whoo, whoo ♪
Martin: No, sir. It's taken us all by surprise.
I--I will bear that in mind.
Yes, sir.
Good night.
[clock ticking]
That was Mr. Milton.
Coretta: From the Dexter board?
- Yeah.
Reminding me that I'm still the pastor of a church.
- And did he also remind you that the last pastor
was fired for his radical views?
- Not in so many words.
But it was very much implied.
- You found five?
God bless you.
- Now, you got to be there at 6:00 p.m. sharp, now.
6:00 p.m. sharp.
[all talking at once]
- Oh, Lord. Okay.
All right. I'll get back to you.
Got some trouble at the Day Street lot.
Vandals done slashed some tires.
[dog barking, bottle clinks]
- They asked us to watch over these here vehicles
after some of the tires got slashed.
Said we could even sleep in 'em if we want to,
long as that don't happen to them.
We got to do our part too, you understand?
- And then you raised the taxi fares by 45¢.
- Cars been vandalized all over town.
- Sorry I'm late.
- Who is this?
- Uh, Luther Ingalls, secretary of White Citizens.
- Is that who I think it is?
- Guess he left his robe at home.
- Uh, Mr. Mayor, we were not informed
that, uh, Mr. Ingalls was a member of your committee.
- I don't think it's our job to inform you, Mr. King.
- Well, what is our purpose if certain members
have come with preconceived ideas?
- Reverend King, I came here prepared
to vote in favor of Negro bus drivers.
I resent very deeply your statement that we
as white people have come here with certain preconceived ideas.
I most certainly did not.
man: Nor did I.
- Well, I apologize to those of you who have come
with more open minds, but I would also
like to state for the record that we of the MIA
strongly protest the presence of the White Citizens' Council
at this meeting.
- You're here representing the Negroes.
No difference me representing my people.
- Don't compare our two organizations.
- Why not?
- The White Citizens' Council is openly racist.
- That is your opinion, Reverend King.
Now, I suggest you exercise the same tolerance
for a different opinion.
- I don't think it's a question of my tolerance.
- Well, it seems you've got a real problem
with other people expressing their opinions,
don't you, Mr. King?
This man, this man here speaks for you all?
- All right, let me make one thing very clear.
Let there be no mistake that Reverend King
is the voice of every Negro in this room,
but he's also the voice of 50,000 Negroes in Montgomery.
[church bell tolls]
- I walked right into that.
- Amen.
- Now, see, they think they're slick.
They're not negotiating on good faith,
and they think we foolish enough not to know the difference.
- Brother, this is a siege.
This is a battle to see who's gonna give in first.
They just wore you down.
- I guess you're right.
- Soon as you concede even one point to the Negroes,
you--you open the floodgates.
They're like children, W.A.
You got to be firm with 'em.
- We're doing the right thing just waiting 'em out.
- Well, boycott'll be over today.
Negroes will never keep on walking.
They do not have the stomach for it.
- You can smell that rain.
- Ain't a cloud in the sky.
all: ♪ If it's gonna rain ♪
♪ Let it rain ♪
[relaxed gospel music]
Martin: Good evening.
In the year 1619, the first Negro slaves
landed in ships on the shores of this nation.
Nearly 400 years later, the Negro in America
still is not free.
woman: Yeah, that's right.
Robinson: No, Miss Stone and her daughters
have been waiting for 45 minutes.
You need to send a car over there
to Jackson Street right now.
- I can't guarantee your car won't get a little bit muddy.
[unintelligible]
- All right. - Well, it is raining.
Well, we will clean your car for you.
But we need it right now.
Martin: Yet the substance of America
is expressed in the sublime words,
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men..."
- Everybody. We need everyone we can get.
So we can count on you, then?
Thank you. Thank you so much.
- Hey, baby.
[phone ringing]
Yes?
No, the boycott's not suspended.
Just a little rain.
- A little rain? It's a typhoon.
- Yeah. All right.
Where you going?
- Well, we need drivers.
[thunder rumbling faintly]
[light instrumental music]
♪ ♪
[engine revving]
♪ ♪
[man scatting]
♪ ♪
man: ♪ Yo, come on ♪ men: ♪ Ah ♪
[phone ringing]
- It held,
in spite of the rain.
- Jesus.
Lewis: Numbers about the same as yesterday.
Nobody's riding the buses.
The boycott held.
[phone ringing]
[crickets chirping]
- Hello?
Martin?
Hello?
Who is this?
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[panting]
man: It is time for the white community
to stop providing taxi service to their Negro maids and cooks.
They're only prolonging the boycott.
- The only reason they're helping is so they don't
have to do they own laundry.
- If you really want to hit 'em where they live,
make the cooks and the maids go on strike.
- Martin, phone call.
man: Think that they can force the white people
in this community to submit to their...
- Thank you, Rufus. - Mm-hmm.
- Hello?
Hello, hello, Mr. Rowan.
Oh, of course. I admire your work.
- They think that it's funny that whites
who oppose the boycott will act as chauffeurs
to the very Negroes that are boycotting.
Martin: Uh-huh.
Well, uh, no, that's, uh--
that's a false rumor.
No, I'm quite sure.
That's definitely a lie.
No member of the MIA met with the city.
Thank you.
That was Carl Rowan.
Lead story in tomorrow's paper says the boycott's over.
- Wait, wait, who said that?
man: No, no, no!
- Well, according to the story, uh, some ministers
from the Montgomery Improvement Association
came to terms with the city council.
- People read something like that,
it could break the boycott.
- Well, they can't just say it's over.
- Well, they called it a negotiated settlement.
- Negotiated by who?
We got us a Judas in our midst.
[all talking at once]
- We got 30-some-odd hours to get the word out
before the first bus Monday morning.
- Everybody don't go to church on Sunday.
[bluesy music]
All right, watch yourself.
- Now, how do you know about these places?
- You hear things, word gets out, you know?
- Hey, Rev, where you at, man?
- Hey, Bubba.
♪ ♪
[laughter, unintelligible chatter]
♪ ♪
woman: ♪ Oh, oh, ooh ♪
♪ You're gonna cry and cry ♪
[cheers and applause] ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
- Everybody, please remember to stay off the buses, okay?
- Hey, Rev,
you want to shoot some stick?
- [chuckles]
- So I'll see you in church tomorrow, right, boy?
- Damn, you some shooter, Rev.
- Y'all gonna play again?
- Nah, that's all right.
I think my best pool shooting days' behind me,
but I appreciate you taking it easy on me.
- Wasn't going easy on you.
Guess maybe you had some divine help.
- Maybe so.
[bluesy music]
♪ ♪
I think by the time some of these folks leave
out of here tonight, the boycott may be over.
- ♪ On a blind man ♪
♪ ♪
- ♪ And Lord have mercy on me ♪
♪ Oh ♪
woman: ♪ Lord, have mercy on a blind man ♪
♪ ♪
man: ♪ Jesus, you're the only one
♪ That can make me ♪
♪ See ♪
♪ ♪
[music fading]
- It's time for church.
- That King fella, he's a--he's a troublemaker,
if you want my opinion.
- Don't believe what you read
and only half of what you hear.
- Who you think it was?
- Well, I'm afraid somebody from our board
is talking to the city behind our back.
- You're kidding me.
We got our Judas.
- We didn't know.
We were summoned by the mayor.
They said it was an insurance matter.
- Well, so then you never volunteered a settlement
on behalf of the MIA?
- No, sir.
They made like it was something that already been settled,
asked us to sign it.
- Well, Reverend, it's vital you make
the truth public.
- I think it would be to your best interest to do so.
- Yes, sir.
I could see how that would be.
- Well, all right. Good evening, now.
- Good evening.
- You take care. God bless.
- Yes, sir.
- Now, if we expose this story, we're calling
the most powerful men in Montgomery liars.
- If the shoe fits, wear it.
- But you know these white folks won't see it that way.
Bad enough they cut a deal with a bunch of Negroes,
then the whole thing falls through anyway.
- That's not our problem.
- No, it is our problem.
Makes them look weak.
In order to look strong now, they got to strike back.
[slow piano music]
♪ ♪
- Negroes can get where they're going from the back of the bus.
♪ ♪
- Sam here sits up front with me all the time.
Am I lying, Sam?
- The White Citizens' Council
just got three brand-new members.
Imagine that.
- Imagine that.
- We believed we had an agreement,
but the Negro leaders have betrayed us.
man: The Negro radicals think that they can force
the white people in this community
to submit to their demands.
- E.D., ain't no preachers in here.
man: They don't really care about a better bus service
for their people.
What they are after is the destruction
of our social fabric, our way of life.
- And we will.
- We'll show them crackers.
[man speaking unintelligibly]
- You are not gonna believe this.
Ten traffic tickets,
seven of them for speeding.
man: Let 'em walk till the end of time.
- Miss Robinson likes to get where she going.
- These three here are for going too slow,
and that's just in the last two days.
They are ticketing everybody who's riding the boycotts.
And believe me, they're not cheap.
- Mm-mm. [phone ringing]
man: And let them know in Washington, D.C.,
that we got something going on down here.
man: Now, this can only end badly for all of us.
This goes to the heart of our...
- MIA?
Yes. [phone ringing]
Oh, yes, you can sign up for a ride.
man: Women, our children... [ringing continues]
- Well, just leave us your name, and I'll let you know about it.
Just--will somebody please pick up the other phone?
- Hello?
- We're asking you to pay the fine yourself.
- Not at this time.
We can't.
Well, we're figuring out a system to reimburse people.
- These tickets are gonna send their insurance premiums
through the roof
as a provision in the law that allows a state
to take action against drivers who are deemed to be hazardous.
And too many traffic tickets and, uh...
- They gonna confiscate cars.
- They could confiscate their cars.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Tell all my friends that Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
was my own personal driver.
[laughter]
- You tell 'em, sister. woman: Mm-hmm.
[laughter]
- Be careful now.
- Oh, I see 'em.
[percussive music]
[siren wails]
- Oh, shit.
[gasps softly] Uh, pardon me, Reverend.
- That's quite all right, sister.
I share your sentiment.
Can I help you, Officer?
- Step out of the car. Just him.
Martin King.
- I've done something wrong?
- You were doin' 30 miles an hour
in a 25 mile speed zone.
- Then write me a ticket.
- Shut up. Get up against the car.
- He didn't do anything!
- What are you doing? - I'm arresting you.
You get back in the car!
Give me your hands.
- Oh, I hope he don't hurt him.
- Look, take me with you.
He didn't do anything!
- You back away!
Step away from my car!
- Find Coretta.
Find my wife and let her know what happened.
both: Yes, Reverend.
[dramatic music]
[camera shutter clicks]
♪ ♪
Martin: You see, within the belly
of that first slave ship, you didn't have to worry
about whether or not you were sitting in the proper section.
You didn't have to worry about getting up
to give your seat to a white person.
You were loaded into the belly of that ship
on a first come, first to serve basis.
And then a Negro who dared to reject the circumstances
under which he suffered, well,
that Negro was a problem.
[pensive music]
- They took him out of his car,
and he didn't do nothing wrong!
Martin: This your first time, hmm?
Never been here before?
Well, no, never before.
You see that hook there?
Where?
Mm.
You know what that's for.
Mm.
40 days, 40 days.
[whispers] 40 days, 40 days.
And he went up, and he looked over.
But, see, you have not yielded to the possibility
of the inevitable.
That's not for you.
That's not for you yet.
- This is a property bond.
- Only way to make bail's with cash.
- This is an accepted form of bail payment
throughout the entire state of Alabama, sir.
- Not this time of night.
- Well, this is an acceptable way--
- Take a look at this.
men: ♪ The blood won't atone ♪
♪ If we don't bring these issues to the light ♪
♪ Feel like going on ♪
♪ Trials in your life come to make you strong ♪
♪ So hold your head up, stick your chest out ♪
♪ Ain't no doubt about this here ♪
♪ God's gonna bring you out ♪
♪ In the morning, he gon' wipe all those tears away ♪
♪ Make it through the night, there's a brighter day ♪
♪ Got to know that you never gon' be left alone ♪
♪ God's gon' deal with these issues if you hold on ♪
♪ ♪
- Reverend Martin, this is Harry Phillips.
- Evening, Brother Phillips.
- Evening, Reverend King.
- He's gonna be your driver.
- What do I need with a chauffeur?
- Look, we can't have you driving anymore.
It just ain't worth the risk.
- Well, let's go on home.
[pensive blues music]
♪ ♪
Coretta: ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday, dear Daddy ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ ♪
[phone ringing]
- Yes?
[somber music]
♪ ♪
[phone ringing]
Yes?
Do not threaten my family.
[bottle thuds]
♪ ♪
[sniffles]
Lord...
I'm here taking a stand for what I believe is right.
But now I'm afraid.
People are looking at me
for leadership.
But I'm at the end of my power.
If we are wrong...
I don't think I can do it anymore.
If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth...
Help me, Lord.
Was merely a utopian dreamer and never came down to Earth.
Help.
If we are wrong, justice is a lie.
And we are determined to work here in Montgomery,
to work and to fight until justice rolls down
like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream,
and when the history books are written,
somebody will have to say, "There lived a race of people,
"a black people, fleecy locks and black complexion,
"who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights,
"and thereby they injected a new meaning
into the veins of history and civilization."
And we are going to do that here in Montgomery.
God grant that we will do it before it's too late.
[woman vocalizing]
- I have today instructed the police department
to break up congregations of Negroes
that are loitering in white residential districts.
man: The Bible's very clear about
the separation of the races.
man: Animals in the woods don't mix.
The fish in the rivers don't mix.
man: I don't care what the Bible says
or what the Bible doesn't say.
man: This will only lead to a mongrelization of the races.
man: Furthermore, many, uh, local businessmen
have promised me they're gonna lay off Negro workers
who are being used by outside agitators
from the NAACP as instruments in this boycott.
- Ain't no good gonna come out of this.
People getting all riled up.
- Well, I'm sorry it happened.
But we still urgently need your car.
No, you're not expected to pay for it.
We have a fund that covers it.
Just send your repair bill to our treasurer,
Mr. E.D. Nixon.
- Repair bill? Fine.
How much money you got in your pocketbook, Miss Robinson?
[laughter]
- Reverend. - Hmm?
- How long has that police car been sitting out there?
- I don't know. Long enough, I suppose.
Tell me something.
Is your landlord a white man?
- Listen, everybody.
We moving out of here right now.
- What?
- Grab everything that you can carry.
Get everything out of here.
- What's going on, Reverend Abernathy?
- The police are out there, and if they evict us,
they get to keep everything in here.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- They've got no reason.
- They will find a reason.
They always find reasons.
♪ ♪
man: Where we moving to?
Abernathy: Anywhere, as long as it's owned by a Negro.
♪ ♪
- Go, go, go, go!
♪ ♪
- Let's go, come on. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
♪ ♪
- Good day, officers.
- It's supporting an illegal boycott.
- What do you expect me to do?
She has a limp, poor thing.
She's lame. She can't walk to work.
- Well, what she does is her problem.
Now, every time I see you driving her,
I'm gonna give you a ticket.
- My white lady always be asking me about the boycott,
but I don't tell her nothing.
Better she don't know.
But I will tell you this--
- Joanna, we have things to do.
- Yes.
- The city isn't offering anything more
than the same old segregation with increased bus fares.
Now, we've walked for months,
and I say we keep on walking until our city fathers
give us what we're asking for.
[dog barking]
- The latest proposal by the city now is just ludicrous.
- I agree with E.D. I agree with E.D.
[all talking at once]
- Ladies and gentlemen, now, we've been at this
for 56 days now.
And I think the boycott has succeeded
beyond our wildest-- - Succeeded?
[all talking at once]
- I do believe it is time for us to be reasonable.
- Reasonable for what? - What is reasonable?
- Now, let Reverend Banyon finish his point, please!
- Now, let me tell you what is reasonable.
If they give us two out of three of our demands,
I think we ought to take that.
- We'd be at the same place as we were before.
[all talking at once]
- Hold on, now. Hold on, now.
Look, it seems to me that were we tonight
to tell the people that it's time for them
to get back on the buses, we would be ostracized,
completely laughed at.
- Yes, yes. - Exactly right.
- Look, they have had the courage
to continue walking.
We should have the courage to hold the line.
- Hold the line.
- Continue, continue, continue, continue, continue.
- Here we are trying to lead a movement
we can't ever seem to catch up to.
Is there some way we can bypass the state courts?
- Mm...
Not in Rosa's case, but we could file
a separate suit at the federal level
and go after segregation on a constitutional ground.
- Hmm.
- We've been waiting for an opportunity like that.
The success of the boycott might just
give us the leverage we need to pull it off.
- If we go federal, we gonna bring down
a lot more heat on ourselves, a whole lot.
- Mm-hmm. You can't deny that.
If we're asking the federal court to overrule segregation,
we gonna need some additional plaintiffs
to strengthen our case,
and certain folks gonna have to put themselves at risk.
[child laughing]
- So Attorney Gray is drafting a lawsuit
demanding that the city segregation laws
be declared null and void.
- On the grounds that it violates the 14th Amendment.
- And which one was that, brother?
- The right to equal protection under the law.
Martin: The suit will be filed this afternoon.
- Are you saying we going to the Supreme Court or something?
Martin: No, no, no. - Reverend King--
- Federal court? - No, it's a separate matter.
- Now, you gonna sabotage our negotiations with the city.
- The city already sabotaged the negotiations themselves
by not being willing to negotiate.
I mean, they didn't come to the table in good faith.
- Now, that's a declaration of war.
You gonna give them reason to kill us.
- Well, look, Reverend Banyon, from the beginning,
the only thing we have asked for is a modified system
of segregation, and they already want to kill us.
So it seems to me they leave us with two choices.
Either we give in, or we just go in
over their heads and rid ourselves
of segregation altogether.
Fields: Reverend King, you walking out
on a very dangerous limb,
and you asking us to go with you.
- At this point, our only plaintiffs are women.
However, we would like to include some of our men
as part of the lawsuit, and at least one minister.
A minister has great symbolic value in the community.
Now, the Reverends King and Abernathy
wouldn't be good choices because they are too much
in the limelight.
- My--my grievances are not personal.
- That's right.
They're on behalf of my parishioners.
man: I agree with that. I agree with that.
- Will not one of you volunteer?
Uh, we gonna have to make this work
with the plaintiffs we have.
If we keep the boycott running, the court's gonna have
a hard time avoiding us.
- Let's hope.
- The Negroes are trying to make this a federal case,
but we're not gonna let that happen.
We don't want Washington politicians
telling us how to run our business
and how to live our lives.
We have rights too.
This boycott is illegal.
Now, the Negroes can either accept our final offer
or suffer the consequences.
- You see, in the belly of those slave ships,
it didn't matter whether you sat
in the right section or not.
You see, you didn't have to worry about getting up
to give your seat to a white person.
You were loaded into the belly of that slave ship
on a first come, first to serve basis.
all: Yeah. [applause]
- And any Negro who dared question the circumstance
under which he suffered, well, now that Negro was a problem.
woman: ♪ You may be an ambassador ♪
♪ To England or France ♪
♪ You might like to gamble ♪
♪ You might like to dance ♪
♪ You may be the heavyweight ♪
♪ Champion of the world ♪
♪ You may be a socialite ♪
♪ With a long string of pearls ♪
♪ But you gonna serve somebody ♪
chorus: ♪ Serve somebody ♪
woman: ♪ I want you to know you gonna serve somebody ♪
- There comes a time when time itself
is ready for a change.
all: Yes.
- And that time has come in Montgomery.
women: ♪ But you gotta serve somebody ♪
Our opponents-- and I hate to think
of our government officers as opponents,
but that's what they are...
all: Yes. Yeah.
- They have tried all sorts of things to break us.
But we still hold steadfast,
resolute.
And still, we don't advocate violence.
We don't have to.
all: Yes.
- The Lord is with us. all: Yes.
- And we are a chain.
We are linked together indivisible.
I cannot be what I ought to be
unless you are what you ought to be.
all: Amen. Right.
- We are a chain.
[applause]
- Now, we have good news in Montgomery right now.
[approving murmurs]
Now, how do we protect our feet?
We have all kinds of shoes from all kinds of folks
from all over the country.
all: Yes. [applause]
- Shoes to replace the shoes that has been worn down
by us walking, shoes to help keep us all walking.
all: Yes. woman: All right.
- But we got something else also.
[unintelligible murmurs]
I have here a check
from our brothers and sisters in Mobile, Alabama,
for $500.43.
[applause]
They sent a letter with it,
I guess to keep us encouraged.
They said, "Please accept this check
"for $500.43 for your cause and our cause.
"We here in Mobile, Alabama, support your fight.
"P.S.: The 43¢ is to let you know
that some more is coming."
[organ chords play]
[applause]
This new "get tough" policy...
man: Yeah? - This ain't gon' stop us.
[shouts of agreement]
We all know the state of Alabama's motto.
all: Heart of Dixie.
- Heart of Dixie, huh?
Well, I say let's keep on walking until Dixie has a heart.
[cheers and applause]
woman: ♪ What a day of rejoicing it would be ♪
♪ What a time, what a time ♪
all: ♪ What a time, what a time ♪
woman: ♪ One look at Jesus, and we'll be ♪
all: ♪ Yes, time ♪
♪ What a time, what a time ♪
woman: ♪ I'm gonna tell 'em all ♪
all: ♪ Yes, time ♪
woman: ♪ What a time ♪
all: ♪ What a time ♪
♪ What a time ♪
woman: ♪ God's gonna wipe my tears away ♪
♪ What a time ♪
all: ♪ What a time ♪
[glass shatters]
♪ Yes, time ♪
- ♪ Thank you, Jesus ♪
♪ What a time ♪
♪ What a time, what a time ♪
♪ Somebody sing it with me ♪
all: ♪ Doo, doo ♪
woman: ♪ Yes, Jesus ♪
all: ♪ Doo-dup, doo ♪
woman: ♪ Mm-mm-mm ♪
woman: Amen.
[applause]
- Brothers and sisters, what do we do?
all: Fight on.
- We fight on.
And no matter what the other side does,
it's one thing that they cannot do,
and that is force us back on them buses.
all: Amen.
- What is it?
- Your house has been bombed, Martin.
- Coretta, Yolanda?
- We don't know yet.
chorus: ♪ Doo, doo ♪
[all talking at once]
♪ Doo, doo ♪
woman: ♪ Mm-mm-mm ♪ man: It's all over now.
- No, it ain't all over. It's just started.
- We ain't goin' nowhere.
- That's right. That's right. woman: ♪ Jesus ♪
chorus: ♪ Doo, doo ♪
woman: ♪ Oh, Lord ♪
♪ Thank you, Jesus ♪
chorus: ♪ Doo-dup, doo ♪
woman: ♪ When all of God's ♪
chorus: ♪ Children ♪
woman: ♪ When they get to ♪
chorus: ♪ Heaven ♪
- Reverend King, I can assure you
that this type of activity will not be tolerated.
man: My boys will look into this.
woman: Want to know what you're gonna do about...
[unintelligible chatter]
- Coretta?
woman: This ain't right.
[people speaking unintelligibly]
- You all right?
- I'm all right.
- Yoki?
- She's fine. She's in the back.
We're both fine.
- They ain't goin'.
[people yelling]
We are gonna have a riot on our hands.
- I promise you a full investigation.
We're offering $500 for information
leading to the arrest of the bomber.
[all yelling]
I understand your concerns,
but there's nothing else to be done.
It's time for y'all to go on back to your home.
[all speaking at once]
- This is our home.
- You go home! - That's right.
You know, everybody know
what we're fighting for is right.
And we're gonna win, 'cause y'all white folk,
y'all don't scare us no longer,
and you can't kill all of us.
- Yeah!
[all yelling]
- I--I want to--
I thank you all for showing your support.
Everybody's all right.
If you have weapons, please take them home.
[crowd murmuring unintelligibly]
We must not meet violence with retaliatory violence.
We must love our white brothers, love our--
[crowd murmurs unintelligibly]
Love our enemies.
This is what we must live by.
We must meet their hate with our love.
And God is with us.
- Well, show us Coretta.
all: Yeah. - Show us Coretta.
[people yelling]
- You hit somebody with that stick,
and we all gonna die out here tonight, Jack.
woman: That's right! That's right!
[all yelling]
- Hell, I know it ain't right to attack a man's family.
I know they're angry.
woman: Let him go! Let him go!
- I got a job to do.
- Let's go.
All right, I want that car out of here.
woman: We just want to know if she's all right.
woman: That's right. [all speaking at once]
woman: She's all right. woman: All right.
all: Amen.
- All right. Go on home now.
woman: ♪ What a day of healing ♪
♪ Thank you, Father ♪
♪ Nothing but love ♪
♪ Joy and peace ♪
♪ When all God's children ♪
♪ Have mercy, Father ♪
♪ When we get to ♪
chorus: ♪ Heaven ♪
woman: ♪ Talkin' 'bout a time ♪
♪ What a time ♪
♪ What a time, what a time ♪
♪ Thank you, Jesus ♪
- When do we get to fight back?
Brother King.
Brother King, there are people out there,
they want to take matters into their own hands,
fight back, show 'em we're not afraid.
If the whites bring guns, then we bring guns.
- We won't win a battle with guns.
They've got more guns.
They'll get tired of beating us
when they see it won't break us.
- Damn it, they don't seem to be getting tired.
Seems like they're getting stronger than ever.
Seems--seems they like it.
- Brother Phillips, we won't stoop to their level.
We believe in the Bible.
- An eye for an eye, boss.
That's in there too.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- I'm right down the hall if you need anything.
- Thank you, Juanita. - [whispers] You're welcome.
Yolanda: Bye-bye.
♪ ♪
Hi.
[Yolanda cooing]
♪ ♪
Mommy?
[woman vocalizing]
♪ ♪
[camera shutter clicks]
♪ ♪
- Martin, I don't pretend to understand
why you've been chosen.
I really don't.
But you have.
And you are the right man.
- But that crowd out there, that...
that hatred can't be contained.
I'm beginning to question whether...
It just runs too deep.
If you or the baby had been hurt,
there would've been bloodshed.
I want you to take Yolanda and leave Montgomery.
- Martin...
- Go to Atlanta and stay with my parents...
- Martin. - Until this is resolved.
- We are family.
- I will not have the blood of my family on my hand.
[melancholy flute music]
- Don't let them intimidate you.
- They bombed the house.
I think they already have.
♪ ♪
[hammers tapping]
man: I got it.
[unintelligible conversations]
♪ ♪
man: Anybody got a hammer?
[unintelligible conversations]
♪ ♪
- Reverend King.
- Hello, Coretta.
Looks like you're doing a little redecorating.
- You could call it that.
It's good to see you.
- Good to see you too and safe.
You've done important work here, son.
There's nobody prouder of what you've done here than I am.
But there's no reason you can't
run this boycott from Atlanta.
You push for too much here in Montgomery,
you'll lose everything-- your position, your reputation.
- Daddy, I won't leave.
- Martin, they bombed your home.
You are in peril.
Your family is in peril.
This city is set to explode.
If you're not careful, there's gonna be a race war.
- I can't walk away.
I won't.
I've started something here, and I intend to finish it.
- Coretta, talk some sense into my son.
- Baby, what do you want to do?
- I'm staying here.
- Then so am I.
[dog barking]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[bell dings]
- My name is Bayard Rustin, R-U-S-T-I-N.
I believe you have a room reserved for me.
- Uh-huh.
Well, put your John Hancock down there
and give me three nights in advance,
and we'll be in business.
- Tell me, how far a walk is it
to the home of Reverend King?
- Well, I don't know what y'all, uh, do up there
in, uh, New York City, but you don't want to be
walking alone down here at night,
especially with this, uh, bus business going on.
- And here I thought all black people
walked in Montgomery.
[both chuckle]
- Not at night. - Oh...
I'll take my chances.
[slow blues music]
♪ ♪
- But who are you?
- It's Bayard Rustin.
- What are you doing here?
Why'd you come all the way down here from New York City?
- It's a business trip.
- You here to stir up something with that Negro boycott?
- Well, I do intend to avoid the buses.
- What kind of business you do at night?
- I'm a journalist.
I am working for "Le Figaro"
and the "Manchester Guardian."
Those are European journals
or newspapers.
Is there anything else?
[dog barking]
- What do you want?
- I'm here to see Dr. King.
- Need to go on home.
- My home is a long way from here,
and I don't really care to return to it at the moment
since I just left it to come to Montgomery
to see Dr. King.
- Reverend King's not seeing any visitors.
Now go on.
- Nelson, who is it?
- Nobody, ma'am.
Somebody just leaving.
He can come back in the morning.
- Good evening, Mrs. King.
Bayard Rustin.
- Bayard Rustin.
- Excuse me.
How are you?
- I heard you speak on nonviolence
when I was a student at Antioch College.
And I will never forget it, because you said something
about history that has stayed with me.
- Is that so?
What did I say?
- That history wasn't an accident,
that history is a choice.
- And why did that make such an impression?
- Because it means that we can do something
about our lives and we're not stuck
with the way things are.
- Wow.
So now you're down South.
Aren't you a long way from home?
- No, no, I'm from Marion.
That's not too far from here.
- Didn't like our Northern customs, huh?
- Actually, I did.
Quite a bit.
- Well, if Bayard Rustin is here,
then I guess we've arrived.
- Excuse me.
Dr. King.
I wouldn't miss a moment that's gonna
change our country forever.
- Yes, yes.
So a policeman says to him, says,
"Well, can you describe these turtles?"
And, uh--and the snail says, "No, sir, I can't.
It all happened so fast."
[laughter]
Well, see, that's how we feel.
Here we are, 77 days into a 1-day boycott.
- You've managed to sow the seeds of Gandhi
in the soil of the South.
- Well, it's not just about Gandhi.
It's also about the teachings of Jesus Christ.
- Mass action
and black social gospel,
it's a new form of protest.
I mean, it's--it's-- it's Negro.
It's jazz.
[chuckles]
- Well, whatever it is,
it's taken us all by surprise.
- Might just take the whole country by surprise.
That's why I'm here.
Reverend King, I'm gonna be blunt.
You're straying from the principles of nonviolence.
- In what way?
- You're the leader of a nonviolent movement,
and yet you have guns in your home
and these armed guards outside.
- Let me ask you something, Mr. Rustin.
Would you risk your family for a tactic?
- Nonviolence is not a tactic.
- Would you risk your family?
- Nonviolence is an ideology; it's a movement.
- I have an obligation to protect my family...
- A way of life, a religion. - And defend my home.
- Well, the guns don't make me feel any safer.
- Look, the movement is in its very early stages.
And I hope with all my heart
that, uh, it remains peaceful, but...
- Peaceful change is healing.
- There is a very definite possibility of violence.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- [humming]
Oh, hey, Reverend. I didn't know you were--
- After tonight,
I want you to find a safe place to put that.
- But, boss...
man: School officials later suspended Autherine Lucy
for her own safety after she and her NAACP escorts
were surrounded by angry white students.
Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson,
speaking to a Negro audience,
suggested that only gradual means
would satisfactorily settle the school's crisis
and other problems affecting equal rights
for all Americans.
More on that story later.
man: And now the weather...
- One Negro girl admitted into a college.
That's about as gradual as you can get, I think.
- They forgot the part where they throw eggs at her.
Rustin: Well, now you see.
It's not just about Montgomery anymore.
And it's sure as hell
not just about seats on the bus.
- Bayard Rustin, ladies and gentlemen.
- It happens whenever an oppressed group
finds its voice.
The white man... [chuckles]
Some white men
are terrified that if the Negro
ever attains power, he will act without pity
to revenge the past.
- Damn right.
- We have to show them
they have nothing to fear.
- The bus company's hurting.
They're on the verge of bankruptcy
and are now willing to meet our demands,
but the city won't let 'em.
- We forgive everything.
We have to bring the message of nonviolent resistance
to the rest of the South.
Everything we've learned here, we have to teach the nation.
It's your responsibility.
- There's also a rumor.
The city might bring indictments.
- On what charge?
- They dug up some old Alabama antiboycott law.
Lewis: We know the people here.
We know they'll walk forever if they have to.
- You have got to stop thinking about this
as just a bus boycott.
It's not!
And you cannot win this fight
unless there are similar protests all over the South
and similar protests all over the nation.
It is in your own self-interest, your own.
- Have you ever run a bus boycott before?
- Not buses, no.
- Well, then why are you lecturing these people?
- The same principles are at work.
- What makes you think they need outside advice?
- And who might you be, sir?
- Emory Jackson,
editor of "Birmingham World."
- Well, welcome, brother.
- I just want to talk to you about your affiliations.
- Well...
That was a long time ago...
Mr. Jackson.
[dog barking]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
[gun cocks]
[fire crackling]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[woman vocalizing]
♪ ♪
- You all right, E.D.?
- Whoever did this, I want to hurt.
[fire crackling]
I want to make the bastards pay.
- I understand that.
- Reverend King, I ain't like you.
I am not like you.
I am not a nonviolent person by nature.
Now, they've attacked my home,
and I want to strike back!
I don't know if I can do this.
We march and sing
and plot and plan and so they can
blow up our homes.
They blowed up your home too.
- Y'all just gonna sit there.
You see how they be?
[somber music]
- Brother Nixon,
Hebrews 10:39 reads,
"But we are not of those that shrink back
"unto destruction,
"but of those who have faith to the preservation
of the spirit."
I believe that.
♪ ♪
I'm sorry, E.D.
♪ ♪
- You know,
I got no doubt that man is a leader.
I just don't know where he's leading us.
♪ ♪
[all talking at once]
Martin: We are Christian.
If you must stone them, stone them with forgiveness.
If you must stone them,
stone them with love. man: Amen.
- Through these powers, we will discover
to our wayward brothers the error of their ways.
[all shouting agreement]
This is and will ever be a nonviolent movement.
woman: Yeah. woman: All right.
Take care, Ed.
Folks up at Fisk want me to come up there and speak.
- I'm not surprised.
- But I can't just, uh, leave here
and go up to Nashville.
- Martin, it's time.
You have to get the message out.
If we don't go national, you're going to lose locally.
- Now, Coretta,
it's another thing entirely
for you and Yoki to stay here alone
while I'm in Nashville.
- So we go to Atlanta, and then what?
[children giggling]
Martin: Many of the Negroes who joined the protest
did not expect it to last this long.
When asked why, they usually gave
one of three answers:
"I didn't expect Negroes to stick to it."
"I never thought Negroes had the nerve."
Or, "I thought the pressure from the white folks
would kill it before it got started."
Our nonviolent protest in Montgomery
is demonstrating to the Negro that many of the stereotypes
he has held about himself and other Negroes
are not valid.
Something is happening to the Negro.
He's come to feel that he is somebody.
- Got rope,
got trees.
- These indictments brought by the grand jury
should not come as any surprise.
We are committed to segregation,
both by custom and by law,
and we intend to maintain it
and to protect our way of life!
- They got arrest warrants for everybody on the committee,
all our organizers, everyone in this room,
115 of us.
It's the largest mass indictment in Alabama history.
- They're trying to chop the head off the boycott.
Abernathy: So what's our response?
Gray: Well, we don't really have one yet.
And Reverend King's up in Nashville.
- How long it's gonna be till they start arresting us?
- Soon as the deputies get the warrants,
so maybe tomorrow?
- Probably is, what I'd expect.
- Well, I would prefer not to be arrested at the college.
Don't want my students seeing that.
Abernathy: All right, I tell you what, brother.
You figure out a way to keep us all out of jail,
we'll find a way to get you some salvation.
man: Ha-ha. - Amen.
- Yeah, I'm on my way now.
But I'm gonna stop in Atlanta...
- Hi, Reverend King.
- To, uh, kiss Coretta and the baby,
and then I'll be there tomorrow afternoon.
Mm.
Well, that seems to me that's just a scare tactic, Rev.
Yeah, it's the same old thing.
Mm-hmm. Well, you--you do that.
You do that. You keep it together.
I'll see you tomorrow, hear?
Abernathy: Make no mistake about it.
The only reason that they're doing it
is to try and separate us from Martin.
That's what this whole thing is about.
- Reverend Abernathy makes a good point.
But there's a larger issue here.
What is a jail?
It's just a building.
Bricks and steel.
That's all it is.
You're the ones who give it power.
You've got to lose your fear of jail.
- I just want you to consider the consequences
of returning to Montgomery.
The police there are targeting you.
I have that on good account.
And you can't lead a boycott from the inside of jail.
- You can't lead a boycott hiding out
in another state either.
- Young lady,
there is a larger picture to look at.
- Yes, there is, and I'm surprised
that you're not seeing it.
I'm leaving tomorrow.
- They will arrest you.
They're arresting everybody.
- What are we supposed to do, just go--go turn ourselves in?
- What happens to the boycott?
- If we turn ourselves in,
we're admitting guilt as if we're criminals.
- You got that backwards, Reverend.
It's the criminal who hides.
I ain't got nothing to hide.
I ain't no criminal.
I ain't afraid of nobody's jail.
- You have a wife, a daughter.
You ought to be thinking about them.
- That's exactly who I am thinking about.
- At least tell your wife to stay here with us.
- No, no, I can't do that.
I'm--
I need her.
[birds chirping]
Abernathy: Now, listen, Martin, this is serious.
There's a rumor that they're about to arrest
Bayard Rustin for lying about who he is.
And I got this from Emory Jackson,
who got it from some white guy over at the paper.
- Well, they've been looking for an outside agitator.
- And now they got one.
- And, brother, this could ruin us.
They--they--they can turn the whole movement
into some Communist plot.
- Some things have come up that we need to discuss.
- I know.
- It, uh...
You know, I used to think that the Christian ethic of love
was only confined to individual relationships.
- It's what we are.
It's what we breathe.
- Yes, yes.
- We need to be going.
- Those things they say about you...
- There's nothing they can say about me that isn't true.
I'm an ex-Communist, ex-con.
I'm a Negro. I'm a bastard.
I'm a homosexual.
And I don't have a proper job.
I'm a man of my times.
But the times don't know it yet.
[light instrumental music]
♪ ♪
It's a gift, Martin, plain and simple.
- What, spiriting you away in the middle of the night?
- No, returning their violence with nonviolence.
You mark my words, tomorrow,
a spotlight will shine down on Montgomery,
one that will galvanize this country.
- You'll be safer in here.
They're looking for you still.
- Think I'd be better off in the back of the bus.
♪ ♪
- Thank you, Bayard.
- Reverend, it's my pleasure.
♪ ♪
- Well, like you said, it's not just about buses anymore.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Martin: As I look at it, I have committed three sins.
The first sin I have committed
is being born a Negro.
The second sin I have committed,
along with all of us,
is to object to the twin battering rams
of segregation and oppression.
The third and most basic sin which all of us have committed
is having the moral courage to stand up
and express our profound weariness with this oppression.
- You're looking for me.
Martin: It is one of the great glories of America
that we have the right to protest.
- I believe you're looking for me.
- This is not a war between the Negro
and the white.
This is a conflict between justice and injustice.
You see, most people see nonviolence
as a cowardly or weak thing.
It is neither cowardly nor weak.
It is perhaps one of the bravest forms of confrontation
known to man.
We are using moral and spiritual force.
This is all we have.
We are using the weapon of love.
woman: ♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest ♪
[percussive music]
♪ ♪
♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest until it comes ♪
♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest ♪
chorus: ♪ Freedom cannot rest ♪
woman: ♪ Oh, no, how can you ♪
woman: ♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest ♪
♪ Until it comes ♪
woman: ♪ Until the killing of a black man ♪
♪ Black mothers' sons ♪
♪ Is as important as the killing of white men ♪
♪ White mothers' sons ♪
♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest ♪
♪ Oh, no ♪
♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest until it comes ♪
woman: ♪ That which touches me most ♪
♪ Is that I had a chance ♪
women: ♪ To work with people ♪
♪ Passing on to others ♪
♪ That which was passed on to me ♪
♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest ♪
chorus: ♪ Cannot rest ♪
woman: ♪ Oh, no ♪
♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest until it comes ♪
♪ To me, young people come first ♪
♪ They have the courage where we fail ♪
♪ And if I can but shed some light ♪
♪ As they carry us through the gale ♪
- The Supreme Court decision on segregation
is now law.
There is a motion on the floor
to end the 13-month-old boycott
of public transportation in Montgomery.
All those in favor, let it be known by--
[cheers and applause]
By standing on your feet.
woman: ♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest ♪
♪ Oh, no ♪
♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest until it comes ♪
woman: ♪ That which touches me most ♪
♪ Is that I had a chance ♪
♪ To work with people ♪
♪ Passing on to others ♪
♪ That which was passed on to me ♪
♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest ♪
♪ Oh, no ♪
♪ We who believe in freedom ♪
♪ Cannot rest until it comes ♪
♪ ♪
- You comin', brother?
- No.
You all go on ahead.
woman: ♪ Don't you be afraid ♪
[relaxed funky music]
man: ♪ Hey ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
♪ Ooh, yeah ♪
♪ Ooh, yeah, yeah ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Preacher preaching in a broken voice ♪
♪ Crickets creaking out the lonely noise ♪
♪ The sun is sinking 'cause it's got no choice ♪
♪ Just like my sinking heart ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
woman: ♪ People watching through a veil of tears ♪
♪ Singing we shall overcome our fears ♪
♪ He was barely even 40 years ♪
♪ But I can hear him talk and hear him saying ♪
♪ Loud and clear ♪
man: ♪ When they lay me down to rest ♪
♪ I won't go quietly ♪
♪ No ♪
♪ Sometimes the price of life is death ♪
♪ But I would never sleep ♪
♪ No ♪
♪ Remember me ♪
♪ Ooh, yeah ♪
all: ♪ You'll remember my dream ♪
woman: ♪ You'll remember me ♪
all: ♪ You'll remember my dream ♪
[Stevie Wonder's "Jesus Children of America"]
[upbeat funky music]
♪ ♪
man: ♪ Hello, Jesus ♪
♪ Jesus, children ♪
♪ Jesus loves you ♪
♪ Jesus, children ♪
♪ Hello, children, Jesus loves you ♪
♪ Of America ♪
♪ Mm ♪
man: ♪ Are you hearing ♪
♪ What he's saying? ♪
♪ Are you feeling ♪
♪ What you're praying? ♪
♪ Are you hearing, praying, feeling ♪
♪ What you say inside? ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ You'd better tell ♪
♪ Mm, mm, your story fast ♪
man: ♪ And if you lie ♪
man: ♪ It will come to pass ♪
♪ Mm ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Mm ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Tell me holy ♪
♪ Holy roller ♪
♪ Are you standing ♪
♪ Like a soldier ♪
♪ Are you standing for everything you talk about? ♪
♪ ♪
man: ♪ Whoa, said Jesus ♪
♪ Meditation ♪
♪ It speaks of ♪
♪ Preservation ♪
♪ Hey, Jesus told us meditation ♪
♪ Gives you peace of mind ♪
man: ♪ Peace of mind ♪
man: ♪ You'd better tell ♪
♪ Your story fast ♪
♪ Hey ♪ man: ♪ And if you lie ♪
♪ It will come to pass ♪
man: ♪ Oh, yes ♪
♪ Tell the story about the... ♪
[gentle gospel music]
all: ♪ Hey, hey, Yahweh ♪
♪ Hey, hey, my God ♪
♪ Hey, hey, Yahweh ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, Almighty ♪
♪ ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh ♪
♪ Shoo ♪
♪ Whoa, hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ Ah, ah ♪
♪ Ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Hey, Yahweh ♪
♪ Hey, my God ♪
♪ Share in our way ♪
♪ Share in Yahweh ♪
♪ ♪
[all vocalizing]
♪ ♪
[all chanting]
♪ ♪
♪ Hey ♪